Examples of Gender-specific Job Titles
According to The Handbook of English linguistics, the suffix -man had the meaning "person" in Old English but in present-day English is masculine and can be used to denote people by office and occupation. Examples of this are fireman, salesman, alderman and chairman. While some of these job titles have feminine variants (e.g., alderwoman), others do not because traditionally the positions in question were not occupied by women. Feminine terms such as actress, waitress, and usherette are marked with respect to the masculine, both formally (i.e., something is added to the masculine form) and in the sense that only the masculine form can be used generically to describe a mixed-gender group of people.
- In the case of waiter and waitress, the status quo seems to be to use those as gender-specific titles, with gender-neutral terms such as server (or sometimes waitron or waitstaff) rarely used in practice when dealing with an individual outside North America.
- Increasing numbers of women are calling themselves actors rather than actresses, especially in the live theatre. The Screen Actors Guild annually gives out awards for "Best Male Actor" and "Best Female Actor".
- The gender-neutral fisher has been used for fisherman; however, in Canada, Australia, Britain, Ireland and elsewhere many women who catch fish have inveighed harshly against this, demanding to be called fishermen, which they argued was the correct gender-neutral term to describe their career choice. Similarly, many female horseriders have expressed a preference to be described as horsemen.
- Military ranks which contain the suffix "man" almost universally remain unchanged when applied to female soldiers. For example, a female soldier serving in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers is known as Craftsman Atkins.
- A midwife can be of either gender, the term coming from an Old English term meaning "with the woman."
These guidelines are by no means a complete standard, as there is still much disagreement on proper usage. Many associations and governments publish handbooks of job titles featuring official recommendations for gender-neutral language.
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